Derrick Rose: ‘I had to be selfish’ with injury

Scottie Pippen had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

John Paxson had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

John Calipari had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

Bradley Beal had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

Joakim Noah had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

I had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

You had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

Everyone had an opinion on how Derrick Rose should handle his injury.

In the end, only one opinion mattered. Rose, in an interview with BullsTV:

I’m not a selfish guy at all, but having this injury and knowing what I had to go through and being smart, this is something I had to be selfish with. I couldn’t worry about anyone else but myself and my health.

Good for Rose.

The Bulls – or any other participant in this drama – have all kinds of motives to do what’s not best for Rose. Maybe they wouldn’t act on those incentives, but Rose showed a deserved degree of skepticism. Just look how Tom Thibodeau played Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Kirk Hinrich until their bodies gave out. David Lee might be learning the hard way where that one-way loyalty gets you.

Only one person has incentives that completely line up with Rose’s: Rose. There was too much at stake for his future to allow anyone else to make injury-related decisions for him, and credit him for understanding that.